By Thanasis Antonopoulos

 

Greek tourism is on track to break new records in 2023, following a dynamic performance in the previous year, with early signs justifying optimistic expectations. Passenger traffic at the Athens International Airport jumped by 40.5% in March and by 60% in the first quarter of 2023 compared with the same periods in 2022, while it was up compared with 2019. International flights to Greece began earlier than ever this year with several popular destinations such as Santorini reporting high room occupancy rates already in March and April.

 

The country's biggest airport said that passenger traffic totaled 1,670,716 in March from 1,188,823 in March last year, up 1.1% from 2019 levels. Both domestic and international traffic surpassed 2022 levels (up 30.9% and 45.5%, respectively) and 2019 levels (up 2% and 0.7%, respectively).

 

In the first three months of 2023, passenger traffic totaled 4.5 million, up 60% from 2022 and 2.4% higher from 2019 levels. Domestic and international traffic surpassed 2022 levels (41.1% and 70.6%, respectively) and both 2019 levels (up 1.1% and 2.9%, respectively).

 

The number of scheduled flights totaled 41,087 in the first quarter, up 21.8% from 2022 and up 2.2% from 2019. Domestic flights were up 13.4% and international flights were up 29% compared with 2022 and up 5.1% and 0.1%, respectively, compared with 2019 levels.

 

Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias referred to the extension of the tourist season, which now starts in early spring and extends until the beginning of winter. "The tourist season has been extended and now when we talk about holidays we are not only referring to the three months of summer. From the beginning of March, Americans, Canadians, Australians, Chinese and all the Europeans of course, Israelis, and travelers from the Middle East started arriving with direct flights, and this will continue until the end of the year. Therefore, we have an ongoing tourism product," he said.

 

As he pointed out, the rebranding of Greece played a decisive role in the development of tourism in the last two years, due to the successful management of the first waves of the pandemic, when quick reflexes and key political interventions helped so that the health system does not collapse, as happened in other more powerful European states.

 

Greek tourism also shows an improvement in quality figures, with the average spending per tourist and per traveller rising by 8% in 2022, with tourist revenue exceeding targets by 2.6 billion euros helped by record revenue from the three main markets: United Kingdom, Germany and France. According to the latest data, travel receipts jumped 71.95 in January compared with the corresponding month in 2022. The Greek Tourism Confederation SETE said that the country is steadily expanding its tourist season and underlined the importance of increased air connections with the United States and the reopening of the Chinese market following the lifting of health restrictions in the country.

 

At the same time, Greek authorities continue supporting investments in the tourism industry, with 8 in 10 investments in the country focused on tourism or on tourism infrastructure.

 

SETE said Greece is capitalizing on its very good brand name, which was enhanced during the Covid pandemic and the way tourism opened in the summer of 2020 and continued working in the summer of 2021, settling an example for other European countries.